If you like it so much, why don't you blog about it.

Nautical Persuasion.

Don’t it always seem to go that warm weather comes around and I just can’t keep myself away from nautical motifs?

Is it the perfect balance between fun and classical style? Smooth yet campy, all at once? Is it my deep love for stripes and fantasy of the good life? Is it because of a lifetime spent near the Atlantic?

Thanks so much for the encouraging reaction to my last substantive post. Sometimes, I feel really weird disclosing my opinions on things in such a public forum. Other times, I feel disclosing my feelings on things that are seen as, like, “the foibles of womanhood” or however you want to think of it. I wasn’t always so conflicted. I started life with a Barbie doll clenched in my fist and a desire for skirts that twirled out around you when you spun around (and around and around). But somewhere after that, I took a dive away from the traditionally “girly” and into something else. Like, I still liked to make things and I kind of wanted to be a fashion designer when I grew up but I was much more into being cool than femme. This led to two things. The firs was that I never took much interest in studying the womanly arts of artifice because I just assumed that shit like that came naturally with the territory. So, when my hair wasn’t bouncy and my skin even, I just assumed it was because I was “bad at being a girl” not because all those other bitches had spent hours curling, blowing, and patting in an effort to skew the idea of normal. I even once had a boyfriend who would tell me that I was “barely a girl” in a way that was half-joking, half-disgusted. It felt like a sad victory.

The second thing was that I felt like I was letting myself and my peoples down. Why couldn’t I want to be a doctor or a lawyer or anything that really showed those assholes that women are, oh god, just as able and willing as menfolk!? Why must I be trapped in this clothes-liking, hand-sewing, woman’s-work hell?! But it’s undeniable. It’s what I like. So, even though around these parts, my name is synonymous with clothing and sewing and all that good business, I still often feel like I have to “allow” myself to enjoy these things. Otherwise, I am damning myself and my credibility.

Sometimes it’s just easier to post up some photos of new jewelry and be all, “Neat, huh?”

Like this:

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2 thoughts on “Nautical Persuasion.”

I totally get what you’re saying. But the thing about “girly stuff” is that it’s also: an industry; marketing; managing supply/demand; pricing; social media; construction; aesthetics. And on and on. I think we are groomed to dismiss our likes as superficial and therefore the creation of “superficial things” is devalued. I think we all know it goes deeper than superficial – and that there are many valid components that go into it’s creation that are worthy but are also devalued by association. Those same skills in service of another genre would be valued differently.

While I’m happy with this reasoning, I also know if the general public judges differently, that feeling is still hard to shake.